Puducherry: All eyes are on Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, as Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararjan has directed him to prove his majority in the House on 22 February.
In an official statement, the LG noted that both the ruling coalition and Opposition have a strength of 14 members each in the Legislative Assembly, thus necessitating a floor test in the 30-member legislative assembly, where 16 is the magic number.
As per the statement, voting shall take place by show of hands and the proceedings will be videographed.
On an average, a Puducherry MLA represents about 20,000 to 25,000 voters, which is only as big as an average city corporation ward in India. And the political transactions here are largely āpersonalā than āpolitical,ā with politicians having a significant personal rapport with people in their smaller localities, mostly based on community and caste factors, besides a little politics.
The Legislative Assembly has 30 elected seats and three nominated seats. Five seats fell vacant after resignation and disqualification of MLAs. The ruling Congress party has 10 seats.
The DMK with three seats and an independent have extended support to the Congress government. The strength of the ruling party and its allies is 14.